There is known, from the prior art, scarifying devices to perform vaccinations or medical tests comprising, on a support suitable for prehension, or manual manipulation, by an operator, the provision of a cluster of scarifying points that are surrounded, or enclosed, with a removable tube which makes it possible to maintain inside the tube a substance that is to be held in contact with the points by capillarity. See. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,136,314 and 3,291,129. The enclosing removable tube provides an aseptic and hermetically closed wrapping.
There is also known, from the prior art, scarifying devices meant for multiple tests, comprising a relatively rigid elongated handle from which there extend, arched or curved connecting rods in the manner of legs, each one of which terminates in a base from which extends a cluster of points. See U.S. Pat. No. 3,556,080.
As shown in FIG. 5 of U.S. Pat. No. 3,556,080 the points of the various clusters may be impregnated, or loaded, with the respective active substances through use of a separate base part which is shaped and formed to present a plurality of wells corresponding with the number of point clusters, and containing the respective substances, with each cluster of points being immersed into one of the wells in the base. The need for such a base may be eliminated by the modified construction that is shown in FIG. 6 of said patent, wherein the custer of points is surrounded by a removable deformable tube which contains the liquid substance which is maintained in contact with the cluster of points. In the latter construction the end of the tube that is distal from the point cluster has been pinched together and sealed, so as to form for the liquid substance an aseptic, tightly closed, and removable enclosure. Such an arrangement, however, presents a number of drawbacks. First, such a construction may result in excessive use, and wasteage, of expensive active substances such as antigens, allergens, medicines or test substances. In addition, the construction shown in the patent presents a substantial spatial bulk because the ends of the tubes, which are shown sealed, must be located far enough from the opposite tube ends which surround the points, in order to avoid tube deformation adjacent the tube ends adjacent the points. In addition, the prior art arrangement does not guarantee an absence of influence, of the operation of heat sealing the distal end of the tube, on the active substance, which by reason of an adjacent heat could be rendered either partially or entirely denatured.
The present invention has, therefore, as its purpose to avoid the said drawbacks of the prior act, and to supply a construction that makes it possible to appreciably decrease the waste of active test substances, to assure the presence of liquid where needed in a spatially tight closing and the integrity of same, while presenting a package of reduced spatial bulk.
The invention further has as its purpose to make it possible to perform, by automatic means, the assembly of the test device including setting into place and the protection of the active substances, and to improve the stability and the appearance of the assembled device.